Santos, Wenger, Wilshere, Sagna, Frimpong, and Twitter turns incandescent at the drop of a hat…

Twitter is a funny old place. If ever you want to witness human beings and their propensity for being drawn into the mob mentality, it’s a excellent place to start. People get so angry on there. It’s one thing to feel frustrated and aggrieved when Arsenal put in a woeful performance – that’s part and parcel of being a fan. It is another thing entirely to start ploughing through the obscenities and make statements as thoroughly idiotic as “Wenger has to go” or “We should get Moyes or Owen Coyle as they wouldn’t put up with that kind of defeat” – I shan’t name names, but I witnessed several tweets saying exactly those things.

He has to go? The same Arsene Wenger you were praising a week ago for snapping up Cazorla? I mean, Jesus Christ… It defies belief sometimes. I’m certainly not placing myself in any ‘AKB’ camp, nor am I denying our boss isn’t capable of mistakes. But if you’re going to complain, at least listen to yourself first. As for the Owen Coyle remark, I’m not even going to attempt to discuss something that breathtakingly stupid.

Worst of all, is the re-emeregence of vitriol directed toward Aaron Ramsey. It baffles me. What exactly has he done to incur the wrath of so many? Sure, his form can be patchy, but you don’t see anything like the hatred he gets directed towards others. It really pisses me off, to be honest. When you consider what he’s been through, when you take into account he always tries and he never hides; surely he should be given a break. He’s only 21, he has bags of potential and he’ll be a great player for Arsenal. He certainly doesn’t deserve to be made a scapegoat by angry idiots desperate for someone to blame.

If it wasn’t for the many great people I talk with on Twitter, the frequency with which I witness keyboard warriors exploding with rage at the most inane of things might just cause me to quit.

But that’s hardly important. Let’s talk Arse.

More good news yesterday for Jack Wilshere, Bacary Sagna and Emmanuel Frimpong; they all completed a full 90 minutes for the reserves – a game that will certainly mean none of them feature against Schalke. It’ll be superb to have those three fellows back in contention, although Jack must be given time – we can’t expect him to stroll onto a pitch and pick up where he left off. 14 months is a long time to be sidelined.

Andre Santos has spoken out to the press regarding the growing number of rumours linking him with a return to Turkey. It’s no surprise that these rumours emerged when he was out of the team, and have been quashed now he’s back in it. Lazy journalism, I think.

The most intriguing story came in the form of an admission from our boss. He’s “worried” by the seemingly unreachable 10-point lead Chelsea have on us:

“The gap is very unpleasant.

“We had an opportunity that Tottenham could win and we could win, and we both lost. That of course makes the gap a lot bigger.

“You cannot say you do not worry about that, but what is more disappointing is that we could not score.

“After we went 1-0 down we had the ball for 70 minutes and could not score a goal”

I can’t say I disagree with any of that. What was one of the worst performances by an Arsenal team I’ve seen in a while cannot be repeated, and it’s good to hear our boss stray away from cheap excuses of fatigue. We should have had more than enough in the locker to dispatch Norwich, and to look so toothless and weak is unacceptable. I’m sure the players themselves won’t be pleased, and I’m hoping for a pumped up and reactive display tomorrow night.

And that’s about it for today. Tomorrow I’ll be back with team news and a preview of the Schalke game. Until then, thanks for reading, you wonderful lifeforms. In the meantime, use the comments below; what are your thoughts? Do you use Twitter and encounter rage like I have?

Let me know a few of your thoughts and opinions.

I almost forgot: I’ve written a piece on unsung heroes for Andy Stern’s blog, “Les Artilleurs” – you can have a read of it here.